According to internal documents newly released by the FBI, the agency spearheaded a nationwide law enforcement effort to investigate and monitor the Occupy Wall Street movement. In certain documents, divisions of the FBI refer to the Occupy Wall Street protests as a "criminal activity" or even "domestic terrorism."

The internal papers were obtained by the Partnership for Civil Justice fund via a Freedom of Information Act Request. The fund, a legal nonprofit that focuses on civil rights, says it believes the 112 pages of documents, available for public viewing on its website, are only "the tip of the iceberg."

"This production ... is a window into the nationwide scope of the FBI’s surveillance, monitoring, and reporting on peaceful protestors organizing with the Occupy movement," wrote Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, the fund's executive director, in a press release Saturday.

According to the documents, the FBI coordinated extensively with private companies, including banks, that feared they could be affected by Occupy protests. Occupy, which took root in New York City's Zuccotti Park in September 2011 and spread to cities across the country, targeted corporations and other forces it believed to perpetuate social inequality. The FBI's investigation included the movement's manifestations in New York; Milwaukee; Indianapolis; Anchorage, Alaska; Jacksonville, Fla.; Richmond, Va.; and Memphis, Tenn., among others.

The FBI did not immediately respond to The Huffington Post's requests for comment Sunday.

In September, the Northern California chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union obtained documents that detailed the FBI's surveillance of the Occupy movement in that region. At the time, the FBI told the San Francisco Chronicle that its investigations were being performed in a way that "respects liberty and privacy and avoids unnecessary intrusions into the lives of law-abiding people."

According to the new documents, the FBI began meeting with representatives of the New York Stock Exchange and other businesses as early as August 2011, a month before the Zuccotti Park protests.

In Jackson, Miss., the local FBI office attended a meeting with private banks and the police to discuss a "National Bad Bank Sit-In-Day" protest in December 2011.

The documents are heavily redacted, a point that the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund considers to be evidence of the FBI's attempt to withhold relevant information. The fund is filing an appeal to obtain further details of the FBI's investigation, according to the release.

If that is true, can you provide evidence the FBI also investigates MADD, Raging Grannies and LGBT parades?

This was peaceful protest and assembly, not the Black Panthers.

As well, this was the banks *requesting* investigations against people who wished to protest their practices. This combined with them shelling out millions to security companies to infiltrate, discredit and hack Occupy.

SurplusElect wrote:This was peaceful protest and assembly, not the Black Panthers.

Any movements or public event gets attention of law enforcement because it's their job. If you get 30 people in public, police will investigate (send couple of cops to figure out what's happening and if it poses a threat to public). If you hold a city rally or a march, police will investigate. If you start a movement that spawns across several states, it gets bumped to FBI because it's across several states and out of jurisdiction of one police force. Once again, because it's their job to investigate and assess the threat level to public.

Sarcasm is like a good game of chess. Most people don't know how to play chess.

The "Occupy" movement burned themselves. Enough people inside that demonstration got tired and just went home with their tail between their legs. Big flash in the start, not enough fuel to maintain the blaze and eventually just petered out like an unattended campfire. Even the FBI investigated and saw little/no harm from within the ranks, so they just allowed to follow it's natural course. Now we all see what the end result was/is, = 0